This proposal describes an interdisciplinary training program in Cardiovascular Biomedical Engineering dedicated to training predoctoral students. Students will receive a multidisciplinary education in the biological and engineering disciplines focusing on cardiovascular health. A major goal of this program is to meet the demands of a growing biomedical engineering field and interdisciplinary workforce. This program takes advantage of the strong expertise in bioengineering and cardiovascular biology present at the University of Arizona. Areas of expertise include: biomechanics, biomaterials, optics, molecular genetics, vascular physiology, radiology, imaging, tissue engineering, genetic engineering, and biocomputing. Training faculty are independent researchers with a shared commitment to graduate training. The faculty has a strong record of support and is actively involved in collaborative research activities. Inclusion of clinical faculty and participation in the Industrial Internship Program available through the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program will foster translational research projects for trainees. Training within this program involves laboratory and didactic experience. The didactic component includes the core biomedical engineering graduate curriculum, the availability of numerous elective graduate courses and regularly scheduled forums and seminars. Progress of the trainees is monitored by the trainee's mentor, the student's advisory committee, a training grant program committee and their respective graduate program. Research in the program is focused in three general areas: Implants, Tissue Engineering and Imaging as related to the cardiovascular system. Within these broad areas, topics being investigated in participating laboratories are: tissue engineered blood vessels, microvascular engineering, vascular biomechanics, vascular modeling, vascular imaging by laser, ultrasound and magnetic resonance of vascular perfusion, cardiovascular instrumentation, vascular genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics and molecular diagnostics of vascular tissues. Graduates of this training program will be independent thinkers with multidisciplinary training in cardiovascular biomedical engineering. (End of Abstract)